Summary
Count Dooku takes a further step toward the Dark Side in a short mystery that reveals how the sycophantic adherence to order is breeding corruption and desperation throughout the Republic.
This recap of Tales of the Jedi season 1, episode 3, “Choices”, contains spoilers.
Following nicely on from Tales of the Jedi episode 2, “Choices” catches up with an older Count Dooku on the next step of his inexorable spiral into the Dark Side. He and a cameoing Mace Windu are heading to Raxus Secundus to retrieve the body of a Jedi, Master Katri, who has been killed. But there’s obviously more to the story, and its particulars further challenge Dooku’s already straying convictions.
Tales of the Jedi season 1, episode 3 recap
Upon arrival, Dooku and Windu note – as do the audience – that everything is deeply suspicious. Senator Larik (Theo Rossi) is unconvincing in his account. When the Jedis are taken to the supposed scene of Master Katri’s death, it has no signs of a battle. Something’s amiss. By exerting some intimidation tactics, Dooku pushes the Senator to reveal it was the guards who killed the Jedi. A fight ensues, and the only surviving guard reveals the murder was part of a political plot to push their agenda through the Republic via the Senator.
After finally retrieving Master Katri’s body and taking it for a proper burial at the Jedi Temple, Mace Windu is offered a seat on the Jedi Council. Dooku, crucially, is not.
However, Dooku isn’t being petty here. What he is seeing is what we have also been seeing throughout the episode – Windu is unswerving and unquestioning in his adherence to the Order, and his essential “promotion” is rewarding that behavior. His appointment to the Council upholds the status quo, and with what Dooku has already discovered about the corruption running rife within the Republic, he’s not keen on the idea of this state of affairs being perpetuated.
So, that makes “Choices” an essential part of Dooku’s personal journey. He has already seen the failings of the system, but here he’s seeing how those failings are justified and excused by the individuals within it.
